Problems: 1. Was not prepared for competition it started getting after the liberilastion of the economy in 1990. 2. Bloated workforce. Air india has 28000 permanent work staff , doubles jets head count. It operates 127 aircraft , compared with jets 115. 3. Highest employees per aircraft in the world. 200:1 whereas desirable is 130-170 :1 4. Bad management and faulty policies has brought air india to this crisis level. 5. A culture of complete sloth in administration. 6. Complete lack of ownership. 7. Lack of responsibility for results and failures. 8. Deeply ingrained corruption in all levels. 9. Instead of renting out unused iconic portions of Nariman point building , for the huge sum the debt ridden airline is paying Rs. 22 lakh each month for its upkeep , 15 of its 23 florrs are lying vacant. 10. Old gas guzzling aircrafts still running 11. Poor marketing and campaign management competitiors like spice jet and kingfisher do effective marketing. 12. Employees not paid salaries. 13. Employee strikes further taking it out of business and competitors taking advantage. 14. The airline has not posted a profit since merging with duopoly partner Indian Airlines in 2007 and relies on hand outs from new delhi to survive.

Flight to survival: It needs to 1. Secure a massive debt and operational overhaul if it is to survive in a market growing at 20% a year. 2. $ 4 billion of working capital debt 3. Privatisation – free from government interference 4. To lure customers and grab market share 5. To lease some of the 14 floors lying idle in the south Mumbai to raise about $1 billion over 5 years. 6. To clear $9 billion in debt as well as outstanding dues both to airport delevopers and state oil firms. 7. To tackle a bloated cost structure , a difficult task given a work force